New Pinball Dictionary: Cheesing

1. To manipulate the manual plunger during Multiball so that the automatic plunger is unable to force the ball into play. This move provides an advantage because, since there is a ball in reserve, the player doesn’t have to worry about the ball ending due to a drain. This a move that is at least frowned upon and is considered illegal in most tournaments.

Types of Cheesing

PAPA.ORG has detailed two types of cheesing that players can use to their advantage in casual play. Don’t try it in actual competition though.

“Shooter-lane juggling occurs when players repeatedly tap the plunger rod on a machine to keep a second or third ball from being sent into the playfield by the auto-plunger. In a best case scenario for the player, enough balls will stack up in the shooter lane that the auto-plunger is not strong enough to remove them, allowing the competitor an opportunity to play a one-ball multiball for an extended period of time.”

Shooter-Lane Cradle

“Shooter-lane cradles are a variation of the more common, shooter-lane juggle shown above. On some games, either the shooter rod is slightly too long, or the auto-plunger is slightly too weak, and when a player continually presses the shooter rod in as far as it will go, the game will not be capable of auto-plunging the appropriate number of balls into play.”

Cheesing (under review)

2. To make a particular shot repetitively, especially in an effort to take advantage of an exploit in a game. This type of cheesing is not illegal in tournament play. Instead, the player is just playing the game in a way that exposes a flaw in the rule set, or is just choosing to make a safe shot time and again.

If enough players find that cheesing a certain shot is the best strategy, that game may be determined to be unworthy for tournament play.